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In the morning, he's out of bed as usual in time with the sun's arrival. He barely slept. He kept wishing he'd known the words to say. Girls like words. They like to use them a lot. Too much, usually. But he could listen to Tulip talk a lot more. There's that thing she does, finger to her lips, when she's shy with him. And that other thing she does, hand on one hip when she's being fresh with him. He thinks about how good she smelled when she got close last night.

She smelled ... good.

His eyes widen and he looks over at the door as he's finishing tucking in his shirt.

Something smells good.

Like bacon or sausages.

Sausages.

And eggs.

Coffee.

He follows his nose into the kitchen to find Tulip standing before the stove, her back to him. She's humming. She's barefoot. She's wearing the t-shirt he gave her and it hangs low over her bare legs, almost to her knees.

Just then East bumps into him from behind. "What this, then? You've got her cooking for ya already, mate? Good onya!"

Egan grabs for East as he brushes past him, going into the kitchen like there's nothing to it -- and Egan sees Tulip's surprised look at him and her grin fading just a bit as East's presence startles her. But East just shrugs him off, striding right up to where Tulip's cooking, putting his big nose over the stove and sniffing loudly. "That smells fantastic. G'morning, beautiful. Thought you'd never put the Silent One back there outta his misery. Here, now, let me just get some plates down for us and we can tuck in before we gotta head out to the fields."

This is not happening, Egan thinks to himself, his face creasing into a furious scowl. Not happening ...

It's one thing to share a house with East but why's he got to be underfoot all the time?

"Wonderful food, Tulip," I say softly. She looks up and flashes me a grin that seems a lot more carefree than any I've seen from her. And then she has this sudden bloom of blush on her cheeks. Damn. "You want some help cleaning up, then?"

East chuckles and I give him a scowl. But he says, "You? Volunteering to do kitchen clean up? We gotta mark this day on our calendars, Tulip. You must be a good influence on him, love."

It doesn't get better. He hangs around while Tulip's gathering up the dishes and I'm trying not to get in her way though I don't mind at all when we bump into each other along the way. But he's still hanging around, jawing, and I can see he's not leaving us. So I have no time alone with the beauty this morning. Instead, it's me and East strolling out of the house together, leaving Tulip alone to dress for the day.

On the porch, I hang back. East dawdles. I tell him to get busy with the saddles. And then Ann drives up to let Drover off. And all I can do is look back at Tulip, standing there in the doorway, looking out at me, her hair hanging loose, bare legs. So in that tiny amount of time after East has left the porch and before Drover walks over, I tip my hat to this woman who's looking like something I dreamed once. "You'll have some peace and quiet today, love. We'll be heading out now and may not be back til evening. You'll be safe here. Feel free to wander around ... Maybe you'd like to go for a walk around with me tonight? Okay, then, we'll be heading out."

So, maybe not the smoothest delivery but it got the job done, I think.

Because the smile she gave me when she nodded that she'd like to go on that walk with me sure did give my old heart a bit of an extra beat.